


i'd like the company

by crypticgemini



Category: Captain Marvel (2019), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Awesome Carol Danvers, Baking, Birthday Fluff, Bisexual Peter Parker, Developing Friendships, Domestic Fluff, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff, Gen, Lesbian Carol Danvers, Male-Female Friendship, Movie Nights, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Canon Compliant, Precious Peter Parker, i guess?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-02-29 09:21:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18775399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crypticgemini/pseuds/crypticgemini
Summary: Peter’s the one who greets her first this time, offering her a shaky wave from his spot at the living room coffee table where he’s still finishing up the last of his homework. Not because he has to, but because he wants something to do. “Hey, Carol Danvers.”He watches the corners of her mouth twitch upwards as she looks over at him.“Hey, Peter Parker.”





	i'd like the company

**Author's Note:**

  * For [astronomony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/astronomony/gifts).



> (title is from grow as we go by ben platt)
> 
> ♡♡♡ this fic was written as a birthday present for my friend alex! happy birthday ali!!! im love u very much!! ♡♡♡

The first time Peter comes face to face with Carol Danvers is when he has his fingers dug into the thick metal of the Infinity Gauntlet, clinging onto it as though it’s a matter of life or death. (It is, he thinks, not for the first time that day.) He’s in the fetal position in a ditch somewhere praying to anything above that he can protect the gauntlet from all the evil looking aliens surrounding him. A bright light flashes around him and when he looks up, a blonde woman in red, white, and blue is standing in front of him. She glows with authority. Literally. She’s actually glowing. He’s already seen her out on the battlefield taking down enemy after enemy like it’s no big deal, so he knows that she’s on their side.

“Hey,” he says, his voice cracking from the stress of it all. “I’m Peter Parker.”

She smiles down at him with something akin to amusement. “Hey, Peter Parker. You got something for me?”

He hears the guttural roar that escapes from her only twenty minutes later as she firmly stands her ground in front of Thanos, the gauntlet sat on her left hand as she brings her thumb and middle finger together. Peter watches as she snaps, the area around her shining bright blue for just a moment before she snaps again. He can only vaguely wonder just how powerful this woman must be in order to use the infinity stones twice before he’s watching the stones in the gauntlet disappear, along with Thanos and his army.

 

They won.

 

-

 

The second time Peter sees Carol Danvers is also the first time he hears her name, a couple of days after the battle after everyone has been tended to the best of their abilities. He and May stay at Tony’s new place during the time period, letting the family fill them in on all that's happened in the five years they were gone when there's a knock at the door. Tony gets up to go answer it and when he comes back two minutes later he’s introducing them to the woman he had seen in the heat of battle. She’s in casual wear this time, Peter notes. A brown leather jacket and blue jeans. Her hand, though, is wrapped up in white bandages showing only her fingers, the tips of which were blushing red. When she looks over at him, she nods her head and grins.

“Hey, Peter Parker.”

He smiles back at her as if she had hung the stars herself and she might as well have. He knows that she’s the reason he’s sitting on an old green couch in Tony Stark’s living room instead of scattered and blown through the wind as dust again. To him, she’s the reason he’s still alive.

“Hey, Carol Danvers.”

 

She sits down in the living room with them and for the next hour, she tells stories of some of the things she's been up to in space. She talks about the people she’s met, the battles she’s fought, and the things that she’s seen on bizarre planets. Carol speaks as though it was what she was born to do, talking with a fluency that Peter has admired about other people for years. When she’s invited to stay for dinner, she asks about everyone else. What their lives have been like, as though she genuinely wants to know all about them. He supposes she does. Thinks that maybe it’s been kind of lonely for her up in space, never sticking around in one place for too long.

When she asks about him he talks about school, about his interest in science and engineering, and about Spider-Man. When he lets it slip that Mr. Stark made his Iron-Spider suit, she quietly laughs to herself.

“Was that the suit you were wearing in that ditch?” She smirks, a twinkle in her eyes. Peter laughs too. He knows that his branding on the suits are a little ridiculous to look at, but they’re his, and he wouldn’t trade them for the world.

“Yeah, it was.”

When Tony shoots him a fake glare from across the dinner table his laughter starts up again, bouncy and happy and contagious enough that it makes everyone else at the table start laughing along with him, even Morgan whos shaking so hard that she spills her forkful of peas all over her lap in all the excitement.

 

Before Carol leaves for the night, Peter manages to pull her aside and ask if she’s doing okay. If her hand is going to be alright and if she’ll be able to fight again in the future. She slings her good arm around his shoulder and ruffles his hair.

“I’ve dealt with worse, squirt. Don’t go worrying about me.”

Normally, when someone says something like that to him he isn’t inclined to believe them, but looking at Carol’s face and seeing how honest and open she looks in that moment makes him believe her every word.

May wishes her a farewell and extends an invitation for her to come over to their place for dinner some point soon. Pepper shoves Tupperware full of leftovers into her arms and refuses to take no for an answer while Morgan runs over to hug Carol’s legs as tightly as she can to say goodbye. Tony simply shakes her good hand and thanks her for coming over.

 

-

 

They see each other again when she takes up May’s offer for dinner a week later. She’s slightly awkward at the door, explaining that it’s been a while since she’s shown up somewhere with strictly domestic intentions as she brandishes a bottle of rosé. May lets her inside with a soft word or two about not needing to be nervous and gushes over how thoughtful she was for bringing wine.

Peter’s the one who greets her first this time, offering her a shaky wave from his spot at the living room coffee table where he’s still finishing up the last of his homework. Not because he has to, but because he wants something to do. “Hey, Carol Danvers.” 

He watches the corners of her mouth twitch upwards as she looks over at him.

“Hey, Peter Parker.”

 

The two of them watch a movie together before dinner, May telling them both that she's content to keep cooking and doesn’t need any help. Peter pulls up Netflix and lets Carol pick a Disney movie for them to watch, knowing full well that she likely hasn’t seen any of them. After a minute of hard decisions, she finally lands on Finding Nemo, so that's what they watch. He makes her laugh with his surfer turtle impression which is something he’s been working on since he was five and beams when she does the impression back to him. She lets him excitedly ramble random facts about the movie to her as the animated fish swim through the sea on the television in front of them. He talks about how clownfish communicate through popping sounds, how male clownfish can become female clownfish if the dominant female dies, how it's possible for a clownfish to lay a thousand eggs and have all of them hatch. He mentions how Ellen DeGeneres, who voices Dory, is an out and proud lesbian and has been for years.

When he sees Carol’s eyes light up just a little at that fact, he quietly adds, “She was one of my role models when I was growing up, helped me come out to myself,” and smiles when she turns to face him with pride written all over her face.

“Gay?” She whispers.

“Bi.” Nodding her approval, she ruffles his hair.

“I’m a lesbian. My partner’s the only other queer person I know.” Carol says slouching against the pillow on her right. “We were in the Air Force together for years and managed to keep our relationship a secret the entire time.”

May then calls out that foods on the table and the two exchange a fistbump before leaving the couch to sit in the dining room.

 

After dinner, Peter takes Carol up to the rooftop and sits on the edge of the building with her. They talk about responsibilities, about guilt, about love, and about the people they’ve helped along the way. She tells him about a planet that she saved from Thanos’s army by destroying the ships that would surround it, and he tells her about the couple he saved during a car crash ~~ _last month_~~ five years ago. They aren’t looking for therapy from each other, but rather just an ear to vent to.

“I’ve missed five birthdays.” He says. “I should be 21 now, but I’m not.”

“I haven’t celebrated my birthday in over a decade.” She responds.

“Why not?”

“It’s hard to figure out what day it is on Earth when you’re on a planet that's galaxies away. When you add in the fact that I’ve been fighting year after year, it’s easy to see why I just haven’t had the time to celebrate.” Carol’s eyes stare into the sky as if she’s fixated on something so far away that Peter can’t see it. “Each planet has its own way of keeping track of time. It gets confusing after a little while.”

 

When they run out of things to talk about they sit in silence and look up at the sky where the stars should be until they become too bored to stay. As they’re walking back downstairs to the apartment, he asks when her birthday is. She leans her head to the side.

“What’s the date today?”

“The twenty-second of April." 

She thinks for a second before giving her answer. “It’s next month, on the fourteenth.”

He mentally files the date away for him to remember later.

 

-

 

Movie night becomes a thing for them for reasons that Peter still doesn’t know. He thinks that maybe Carol doesn’t have many friends that are still around, that maybe she considers him somewhat of a friend. Either way, he likes hanging out with her. He considers her a chill Aunt if he’s counting his Aunt May as his mom. (Which he is.) 

She continues to choose more light-hearted films for them to watch together with the explanation that she just wants to see something with a good ending after so much violence. Peter couldn’t agree more so he happily plays each movie she picks.

 

-

 

It’s the tenth of May when Peter remembers that Carol’s birthday is in four days and promptly begins to panic because he doesn’t know what to get her. Doesn’t know if there's a birthday gift etiquette for people you’ve only known for two months, doesn’t even know if Carol would want a gift from him. 

He decides that the most neutral thing he can do for her whilst still putting in a nice amount of effort is to bake something for her. He drags the step stool out from the storage closet in the hallway and uses it to slide out a cookbook from on top of the kitchen cabinets.

When May catches him flipping through the elaborate cupcake recipes on the dining room table she suggests just baking a batch of simple vanilla cupcakes and decorating them to look fancier since he doesn’t know just what her tastes are. In the end, he goes with her idea instead of the pineapple cupcakes he was considering.

He buys the sprinkles and food colouring himself since they already have everything else he needs. Then, he invites Carol over for a movie night on the special day, hoping that she doesn’t have any other huge plans that night. She doesn’t, says all her plans are during the afternoon, so she agrees to come over.

 

-

 

The day of, he covers himself in flour and powdered sugar as he puts his heart and soul into those cupcakes. Measures everything exactly and takes them out of the oven the very second the timer goes off. They come out perfect, so Peter spends the next hour and a half carefully decorating the tops with different coloured frostings.

That evening, Carol arrives in casual clothing like she usually does, and when Peter opens the door for her he stops her before she can enter. 

“I’ve actually lied to you, sorry! We’re going to the rooftop!” He says, running back in to grab the white box full of cupcakes before leading her to the stairwell and going up. She just quirks an eyebrow and laughs, letting herself be dragged towards the open sky.

“Alright, squirt, what’s all this about?” She asks as they both plant themselves on the roof, this time leaning against the wall of bricks on the other side of the rooftop entrance instead of sitting down on the ledge. 

Peter takes this moment to put the box in front of her and gesture for her to open it. She does so and is immediately awestruck by the cupcakes she sees. He’s frosted each and everyone one of the cupcakes to have her suit’s insignia on them, with the stars being made out of yellow fondant. They’re all lightly sprinkled with edible gold glitter and they sparkle slightly when hit by the glare of the setting sun. She beams as she slowly closes the box and pulls Peter into a one-armed hug, holding him close to her side.

“You little rascal. Did you make these?”

“Yeah. You like them?” He asks hopefully.

“I love them. I never knew you were a baker.” Carol opens the box back up and carefully passes him a cupcake before taking one for herself. She takes a bite and dramatically closes her eyes, throwing her head back lightly. “They taste as good as they look, bug!”

Peter can’t help but snort as he swallows his bite. “Shut up!”

 

They stay on the roof until the sun fully sets twenty minutes later and then they take their treasure chest of baked goods back down to the apartment.

“Do you still want to watch a movie?” Peter asks. “I can stick these in the fridge so they’re still good for you to take with you when you go.” 

Carol takes the box from him and gives him a playful noogie in return, not listening to Peter’s muffled objections. “I’ll put them in the fridge. You go pick the movie this time, okay?”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, little man. Pick somethin’ happy for me.” She walks towards the kitchen, her smile never leaving her face.

Peter considers her birthday present successful as he pulls up Netflix on the TV and waits for her to come back. When she does, she plops herself down next to him and pulls a pillow into her lap.

“Find anything good?” She asks.

“Yeah! I don’t think you’ve seen this one yet.”

He starts the movie, places the remote on the coffee table, and leans back into the couch.

“You know you’re going to have to tell me your birthday now so I can return the favour, right?” Peter exhales a laugh and lightly punches her in the shoulder.

“Maybe when it gets closer.”

 


End file.
